Gongadze murder suspect's trial should be open to public

New York, August 16,
2011--ThePechersky District
Court in Kyiv must open to the public the ongoing trial against Aleksei Pukach,
a former interior ministry general charged with the notorious 2000 killing of independent
journalist Georgy
Gongadze, the Committee to Protect Journalist said today.

In custody since July 2009, Pukach is being tried on
allegations he strangled and beheaded Gongadze, a prominent investigative
reporter and editor of the online newspaper Ukrainska
Pravda. Pukach's trial, which began on July 7, has been conducted entirely
in private.

On Monday, the panel of judges presiding over the case denied
a request by Valentina Telychenko, a lawyer for Gongadze's widow, Myroslava, to
have the trial opened to the public, Ukrainska Pravda reported. The judges
did not address why they believed the entire trial needed to be held in secret,
rather than taking the more limited step of sealing only portions of the
proceedings.

The ruling was the third instance in which the courts have
denied Telychenko's efforts to have elements of the case unsealed, the lawyer
told CPJ.

The judges had ruled previously that the indictment against
Pukach--a former chief of the Interior Ministry's surveillance department--contains
state secrets and could not be made public. The court did not explain why the
entire indictment, rather than portions, merited sealing, Telychenko said. The
blanket classification of the indictment prevents Gongadze's lawyers from sharing
information with outside parties; if such information is shared, the lawyer may
be prosecuted, Telychenko said.

"The trial of the suspected murderers of our colleague
Georgy Gongadze is a defining moment not only for Ukraine but for the entire
former Soviet bloc," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina
Ognianova. "Ukraine must demonstrate that it has turned a new page in its
historical development by choosing transparency over secrecy and justice over
impunity in this flagship case."

Telychenko told CPJ she believes that documented
procedural violations in the investigation are the actual reason behind the
judges' decision to close the trial to the public.

In another disturbing development, prosecutors have filed a motion
to close the official investigation into the role of Yuri Kravchenko.
Authorities have named the late interior minister as the
mastermind behind the murder. Telychenko said that closing the probe would
make it far more difficult to establish motives in the murder. The motion is
pending.

Kravchenko was found dead in 2005, with two gunshot wounds to
the head. Despite great skepticism, authorities declared the death a suicide.